While 1987 woke me up to metal and I hoovered up the likes of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Helloween’s keepers, 1988 was my metal heyday and a year that produced albums that would still dominiate my top 20 list today. Lots of power metal and plenty of Noise Records!

1.Manowar - Kings Of Metal

2.Scanner - Hypertrace

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

4.Candlemass - Ancient Dreams

5.Riot - ThunderSteel

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Mascots are an established and popular part of metal fan culture. In contrast to sports team mascots, they are no cute talismans, but are regarded as personification of the band and its music (or even as some kind of evil band member) that adds enormously to the identification of the fans with the band.

This alphabetical list presents well known examples by showing the album cover where the corresponding mascot first appeared, along with one or two sentences as general information.

Please feel free to suggest more examples of metal mascots or share relevant information on the presented mascots.

1.Alestorm - Captain Morgan's Revenge

2.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

3.Anthrax - Inside Out

4.Artillery - B.A.C.K.

5.Avenged Sevenfold - Waking The Fallen

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The MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

1.

2.

3.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

Man this list was a rough one, but in a good way 1988 is one of the best years in metal history and a lot of great release came out that year, cutting it down to just 20 was tough and ranking them was even harder.

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

4.Candlemass - Ancient Dreams

5.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

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All my favourite songs ranked in order best down.

1.Rush - 2112

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Jethro Tull - Aqualung

4.Rainbow - Rising

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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My top ranked (in order from best down) favorite hard rock/heavy metal albums. I've also one included my top three favorite tracks from each album.

Enjoy!

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Rush - Hemispheres

4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

5.Judas Priest - Painkiller

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1.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

2.Manowar - Kings Of Metal

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

4.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

5.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

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Violets are blue, roses are red. We're coming aboard. Prepare to eat lead

1.Running Wild - Black Hand Inn

2.Running Wild - Death Or Glory

3.Running Wild - Port Royal

4.Running Wild - Blazon Stone

5.Running Wild - The Rivalry

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1.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

2.King Diamond - "Them"

3.Death - Leprosy

4.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

5.Running Wild - Port Royal

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1.Queensrÿche - Rage For Order

2.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

4.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

5.Running Wild - Port Royal

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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This is a list of all the power metal albums I have listened to that are worth remembering. Like my other genre lists, this is not meant to be a definitive guide to power metal or a binding judgment on what power metal is or is not. The list exists purely for my own organizational purposes and may contain bands or albums that are not strictly True Knights of the Eternal Thundersword.

The first cluster includes my favorite albums in the genre (and a significant number of my all-time favorites); beyond that, they are listed by rating from 9/10 down to 6/10 and alphabetically within each bracket.

Last updated November 27, 2021.

1.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

4.Jag Panzer - Thane To The Throne

5.X Japan - Art Of Life

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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Some time ago I made a list for heavy metal albums I enjoyed the most. I got it cleaned up after ripening my tastes.I also tried to organize the list a bit, in subcategories. There is one album per band (choices were hard sometimes), with no strict order, but my favorite albums are usualy on top.

2020 EDIT:
I like heavy metal with atmoshpere, with melody, and ideally it should be some kind of gate to a fantastic universe. I don't care about modern HM with a shiny production and simplistic riffs. I don't care obscure occult band with horrendous prod and no musical ideas. Here's the list of what I consider classics of the genre, pinnacle of dreamy, groovy, beautiful and well composed oldschool heavy metal

1.Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

2.

3.Angra - Angels Cry

4.

5.Fates Warning - No Exit

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This is my top 10 list of albums from Hamburg, Germany. That is, my favourite albums by bands based in that city.

1.Helloween - Walls Of Jericho

2.Gamma Ray - No World Order

3.Helloween - The Time Of The Oath

4.Iron Savior - Dark Assault

5.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

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